Atomic Ranch Fall 2018: The Kitchen & Bath Issue

It's here, and it's official. Atomic Ranch fall 2018 is on sale now, and it's our first kitchens & baths issue (ever)! Whether you're looking to renovate or simply refresh these tricky spaces, you'll find everything from inspirational ideas and designs to top products and how-tos. This issue has what you'll need to turn the kitchen or bath of your dreams into reality.

Once said by Japanese architect Yoshiro Taniguchi, “How is it that this man Le Corbusier can grasp hold of my heart, overpower it, and not let go?”

Designer Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, was a Modernist when modernism was still forming. His designs and flair spread to East Asia after mentoring three Japanese architects, however, Le Corbusier’s time there is markedly unrecorded. All that remains of his mark in East Asia is the National Museum of Western Art, a solitary concrete building erected in 1959.

Courtesy of Anthony Cotsifas.

It is unusual to see a design icon ignored, especially when Le Corbusier was so influential over his students and future Japanese Modernist designs. Like other Modernist architects, he sought to simplify the art of building into a few crucial points, and though he was virtually unknown, Japanese publishing Kokusai Kenchiku (International Architecture), devoted two entire issues to the work of Le Corbusier and were perhaps the biggest proponents of the designer’s influence.

Courtesy of Centre des monuments nationaux.

Thanks to the overwhelming clarity of Le Corbusier’s design positions, the enticing nature of his style and the quickly growing international movement for Modernism, the impact he had on a rising generation of Japanese architects would prove to be immense. His pupil, Kunio Maekawa, was an exponent of Corbusianism and continued to rally his mentor’s teachings, all prevalent in his designs.

Designed by Kunio Maekawa. Courtesy of Anthony Cotsifas.

Overall, Le Corbusier may have a left subtle building in Japan, but his influence touched more than Modernists could imagine.